By day I work 60 hour weeks. At night I am a devoted father and husband to the world's greatest family. Somewhere in the non-existent time between the two, I am a writer. Join me from the beginning as I chronicle my adventures to become a successful published author.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Day 263 - Building Buttresses Again - Self Improvement

In a previous Self Improvement, before my move to Houston, I had written an article about flying buttresses. I mentioned that Author's Incognito, blogs, family, etc were all buttresses I needed to keep me going. Now that I am back into the swing of writing, I realized I need to start building my supports back up. I spent some time late last night and today (but not too much time due to work and family) reading and commenting on other author blogs. I have been reading and posting some in the AI yahoo group. It feels good. And I feel more motivated. In terms of writing updates, I am of course still framing. I am now at 1,672 words in my outline. That translates to a very long story written out. I will have to do some editing after I finish outlining this we...

Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 262 - I Framed the Ending - The Writing Report

My framing continues. IN my 15 minute writing time-box today, I mapped out the final chapter. I always knew roughly how it would go. Mapping it out, while being able to see the rest of the story at once, really helped me add more nuance to it. I've been able to better bring out not only closure for the book but portend problems in the future, thus setting up the next book without leaving loose ends that will frustrate readers (including me!). Now if only I had the rest all done... ...

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day 260 - Plugging Away - The Writing Update

I am no at a week (and a day) of getting back in to regular writing and blogging. I technically missed yesterday, hence the weekend post. Christina found a sitter for Levi, and we went on a date. We ate at one of me favorite fast food restaurants, Culver's. If you haven't been to one, it's amazing. Their deserts are mind blowing (try a concrete shake with hot fudge and Oreo, or give their turtle's a go!), and you can get lots of tasty food outside of the many burgers they have there, such as a pot roast sandwich, Reuben sandwich, etc. Anyway, I digress. The short of it is that I didn't have time in the evening to write. Tonight however I did write, and I really refined a critical juncture in the story that before had just been really lacking. I won't go into it much right now, but the problem...

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Day 258 - General update

I don't have any interviews for now, as I am just getting in to the swing of things again. However, I did want to post, both for self-encouragement and the encouragement of others, that I am doing great on keeping my writing commitments! Yesterday, I really fleshed out a key scene with some massive destruction happening. Today? Politics. I wrote a drat of a legislation key to the story. In fact, it came out different (and better) than I thought in its scope. In fact, it seems scarily realistic for something someone would try to pass! I hope no one in DHS with any influence reads the book and gets any ideas... :-) Suffice it to say, readers will be stunned when they read it, partially because it will really hit home. This legislation has major impact on the entire last half of the story, in...

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Day 257 - The Art of Research, Part IV - Writing WIsdom

Today I reread all of my "Writing Wisdom" series. It got me very excited. Funny enough, I learned things rereading what I wrote! I realized I couldn't start up where I left off if I wasn't immersed in the previous material. And there is the kicker. Anyone can write something. But what are you going to do? I suggest immersing yourself in the history of what's happened before (which was Part III's point). Maybe it's real history of a period or place or family. Maybe it's fictional. But make sure you have continuity. Why? Because it makes your writing that much better. You can toss in little tidbits and hints of things unseen to the reader, tantalizing allusions to some greater back story. And that gives you prequels, sequels, and a following. Next week we'll discuss researching your audience. -------- Writing...

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Day 256 - Time Boxing - Self Improvement

One of the writing time techniques that has been used with Author's Incognito and several other groups is called Sprinting. It's where a timer is set, and everyone works on writing in that time, nothing else. It is pretty effective. During the course of building an office here in Houston, I have also been spending a lot of time with memory and time management, as well as other self-improvement and motivational material. Being the only person in a start-up office means you have to be self-motivated...

Monday, January 23, 2012

Day 255 - Happily Moving Along - The Writing Report

I wrote about another 300 words today, all in outline form. This equates to what will turn in to about 3,000 words more of text (most of my outlines have a 1:100 ratio). I just want to say, I had several brilliant strokes in today's story framing! The "trial" of the POTUS, more details about his kidnapping, etc. Those scenes are not only much more than vague ideas, but are going to be awesome! I can't wait to read the finished product! A few other notes from starting back up: 1) Rereading something I had left alone for several months really helped me bring a fresh set of eyes to it. I saw grammatical mistakes of course and areas to refine, but I also saw areas that may need to be cut. More importantly though... I enjoyed the story. I feel like it's going to be excellent and enjoyed by anyone...

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Day 254 - Second Day Back

Yesterday, I wrote about two paragraphs. It doesn't seem like much, but I also re-read about 30 pages of The Militia. Since it had been a while, I needed to make sure I caught the feel for it again. I made some edits along the way, and then added a little more. Today I worked more on framing my story. I already have about 1/8th of The Militia written, but I was having problems filling in the areas in between major scenes to keep the story flowing at a good pace. I transferred my outlines to FreeMind, which helped immensely. It's now much easier for me to get both a bird's eye view as well as drill down when necessary to the nuts and bolts. In addition to transferring the outline, I added a good amount to it and feel like the story is much tighter in my mind now. I know some people are not...

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Day 253 - The Return

It has now been officially 253 days since I began on the odyssey that is becoming published. I had hoped to be much further along in my writing at this point in time. However, as has been indicated before, I moved from Provo, Utah to Spring (Houston), Texas to open an office with my property and asset management company, Northpoint Asset Management. It has had many ups and down, but stability is nearly here. While finances are tight, the ball is rolling, things are going smoothly in client acquisition, and Christina, Levi, and I are absolutely loving Houston! It feels so good to be back in the south. Not that we didn't love Utah also, but sometimes you just feel like you belong somewhere. For us, at least for now, that place is north Houston. As I obtain stability, it is tempting to put off...

 
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